Piecemeal Pieces

Pink lemonade on ice

2012-02-07T14:52:00.000+01:00

I was hoping to have this photographed with it's backing but it didn't get pieced in time for Lori's 'Pink Lemonade Parade'. So here's my 'Pink Lemonade on Ice' - hand pieced top.

The backing is going to be bars of this red stripe and the peachy roses. I've wanted to put these two fabrics together since they first met, but have never had the occasion. I fiddled around with them a little before settling on strips. I've always wanted to do a two fabric bar quilt, and here it is. (This is the year of finally getting around to doing all those quilts, or at least elements of, that I've been meaning to make).

The binding will be stone blue, I think. Quilting probably clam shells. Thanks Lori for hosting the quilt-a-long (and giveaway), that was a lot of fun. I'll be quilting this in the summer when I'll really enjoy the ice blue.

An ugly duckling

2012-01-28T11:28:00.000+01:00

Kathie commented on my last post that this is one of her favourite fabrics. Since this is the first fabric I pulled out to make this quilt, I thought I'd tell you the story of how it came about.

This fabric has been floating around in my 'stash' for some time. I don't have a lot of fabrics, mostly fat quarters and less, folded into small plastic boxes in the cupboard. I go for clear colours - modern, 1930's, reproductions - no set style. I just buy what I like. Sometimes I sort the fabrics by colour, sometimes by project. This little scrap (a fat 16th I think) came into my life through a reproduction fabric club. I've used up most of the other pieces that came along with this, but this one kept floating around, not get used and not knowing where to go. To me it reads grey (even though on closer look, it's actually brown) and I don't have any other grey fabrics (nor many browns for that matter) so it just shuffled from one box to another.

When I chose to do Lori's quilt-a-long I decided to do it as an exercise in re-learning how to machine piece. I immediately went to my 'use-them-up' fabrics (things I want to get rid of) and came out with some recycled shirtings in beige and white and this fabric popped out. On close inspection I noticed the pale blue strawberries which drew out the setting fabric which so many have you liked (another use-it-up left over dressmaking fabric). The red strawberries drew out one of my favourite fabrics - a raspberry red batik which I bought a fat quarter of many years ago and has since become one of my favourite fabrics - it gives a nice pop to things like the centre square of this quilt.

Then because I loved the two mismatched setting squares in the antique quilt that inspired Lori's 'pink lemonade' (did anyone else do them too?) I pulled out this special fabric from Melissa of 'Tiny Happy' in New Zealand. I've been a long admirer of her work and when she started producing her own designed fabrics I jumped at the chance to buy some. I like the way the hand drawn fabric contrasts with the repetition in the small print. (Note my ironing skills:) ).

The blue of this fabric is a lovely grey blue and it takes away some of the overly sweetness of the aqua one. As with all special fabrics that risk being 'too good to use' - the first cut was the hardest, but once I started I couldn't resist making this little sweetie for Miriam's four patch quilt.

After that, I just headed for my favourite fabrics to fill in the rest. I'm starting to have a usefully full scrap basket now and I love digging in there for things. These blocks are tiny and a little bit of fabric goes a long way.

To cut a long story short, my ugly duckling fabric, which wasn't so grey after all (Kathie rightly called it brown) is a delicate little thing that found it's home at last amongst some pretty little florals and stony blues and just because it isn't pink, yellow or blue - my usual favourites - it's fast becoming my favourite fabric too:)

How did you spend your weekend?

2012-01-23T11:45:00.000+01:00

A feverish five-year-old meant that I spent more time than planned working on this project - my 'not so pink lemonade' (I see that Lori's got her's quilted and the binding on! I'm loving seeing all the different variations of this). I'm just missing the corner blocks and the top is done. A head cold of my own meant that I should have spent an afternoon in bed myself, but I was so far gone with cutting and piecing those half blocks and wanting to see how it all fitted together that I just ploughed through. My wrist is complaining a little, but I can slow down now.

The chair in the photo by the way is a neat little Italian invention - a short legged (37cm -14 1/2 inches high) chair with a woven seat. There is nothing more comfortable for sitting in and sewing, embroidering, knitting or sorting beans. If only I had a wood stove and a stone floored kitchen to complete the picture:)

Do you ever get into a panic halfway through a quilt that you think it's all wrong? Well that's what I kept thinking all weekend. That pretty floral fabric was playing on my nerves a bit - I originally bought it to make a pretty summer dress for my daughter, then decided against it because it has a high thread count and is a little stiff. It's a very bright, aqua-blue. I chose the stonier blue in the two odd setting squares to tone it down a bit. I think with a dark grey blue for binding then I'll be happy with it. Seeing your work in a photograph is a good way to get a bit of distance and perspective, isn't it?

A bit of weekend sewing

2012-01-16T11:52:00.000+01:00

There's nothing quite like a deadline to get me moving. This camera case was supposed to be a thankyou present/Christmas gift back in December. Sunday became the day so I sat down and sewed. The tutorial I used is here. I didn't folow the instructions too accurately, for lack of time. The recipients favourite colours are orange, lilac and green - not my colours at all, so I added in some blue. The solids are Kafee Fasset shot cottons. I started with a strip of pieced fabric.....

Added batting and lining......

Quilted it by machine, folded it over, sewed up the sideseams and added an old-fashioned press-stud. The pattern called for a button and elastic, but I settled for something easier. Look at that great piece of leftover fabric - I'm looking forward to using that. The strip of paper is my template/pattern.

And this is the finished camera case. I'm not so happy about all the orange ending up on the front, I'll have to think about fabric placement next time I make this, and I will be making one soon for our own camera - I promised my daughter one a year and a half ago - I need another deadline.

I even put the camera in this to show you how it looked, but didn't manage to get a photo. It took me a few minutes to work that one out and I'm still laughing at myself:)

Progress report

2012-01-15T11:08:00.001+01:00

Lori's quilt-a-long; 5 out of 6 blocks. And look what I found in the cupboard while I was searching for scraps.........

Lunch anyone? The templates weren't sitting there ready to start work, but that's a new habit - template in the box, ready to go.

More blocks than I thought. I'm about 2/3 of the way done on this top.

And now something completely different......

WIP's seem to be growing in there like mushrooms. I'm not even going to count them. Just keep my head down and work away at them.

About face

2012-01-09T10:38:00.000+01:00

This is where I like to quilt, at the breakfast table while I'm waiting for the girls to get up, while the coffee pot is boiling - in those little scraps of time that crop up during the day - waiting for the pasta pot to boil, talking on the phone, waiting outside dance and music classes, sitting next to my daughter while she does her homework or 'reading' aloud to my younger daughter picture books that I know from memory. I have pieced during homemade puppet shows and have even pieced while wearing a crown and pretending to be a queen while my daughter played around me. This is the way I work.

My first quilt (top) was rotary cut and pieced by machine but it all went together so fast that I didn't realise that I didn't like it until years later when I began to hand quilt it. Hand sewing gives me time to reflect. The quilt that comes out at the end is always different to what I expected.

When I started piecing the shoo fly blocks in the previous post for Lori's quilt-a-long I thought I was going to piece the whole quilt on the machine. I only got far as one block - I wasn't enjoying the sewing machine, the steam iron, the rotary cutter and mat. Even for free-pieced quilts I just use scissors and the sewing machine, ironing just at the end of a session.

When I decided to go back to handpiecing for these blocks, what I enjoyed most was the silence. Yes it's slow, and I'll still be piecing well beyond everyone else in the quilt-a-long. Hand piecing doesn't get you anywhere fast - but I love it.

If anyone out there would like to see how hand-piecing is done, leave a comment and I'll put a description in my next post. (warning; hand piecing is addictive!)

Shoofly

2012-01-06T12:04:00.003+01:00

It's not perfect, but it's done. I haven't machine pieced (besides free piecing) since I made my first quilt top in 1996. Lori's quilt-a-long seemed the perfect opportunity to relearn. I don't have any fabrics similar to those in her antique quilt so I'm doing this in a completely different colourway.

Today is the last day of a long series of Christmas celebrations in Italy - starting with the 8th of December (immaculate conception) holiday, when Christmas trees are traditionally decorated, finishing with the 6th of January, Epiphany, when the three wise men finish their long march across the sideboard to complete the Nativity scene, and the Befana, a kind old witch, comes during the night to fill up children's stockings with toys and lollies (or coal if the children haven't been good).

The girls have opened their little gifts and are out walking the dog at the park with their Dad, so sewing this block was a little present to myself thanks to Lori the Befana:)

Later today we'll watch this film about the Befana, 'La Freccia Azzura'. I couldn't find an English version on the internet but is available on DVD. The music is wonderful.

New year's day

2012-01-01T20:54:00.001+01:00

Some new year's day sewing while the girls were mooching around in their pyjamas. I have taken over my daughter's desk and set it up with my sewing machine and basket of scraps. Occasionally the scraps take over the dining table while I search for that elusive piece, but once it gets out of control I sort them all out by size - crumbs to use up first, recognisable shapes like squares and triangles, and then larger pieces. Any irregular shaped pieces are getting cut down to strips triangles and squares as that's what I'm using most - hand cut with scissors.

Another section - the checked fabric is not actually puckered, just badly ironed! Those yellows in the poverty patch are a bit closer in colour in real life. The white with the blue pin stripes got sewn on right side down, and if that wasn't enough, I made the same mistake with the teal (which is much less noticeable). I actually don't care, and chose to live with that. Just can't believe I made the same mistake twice.

This is what I got done in one morning. Not sure how sensible I am in choosing so many crumb sized scraps to make a king/queen sized quilt, but I'll make up time with the sashing (which will pieced too, but I have some nice long pieces).

This is what I aim to have left over at the end of the quilt. That's all I'm throwing out. If I've got fabric left over when I've finished the front, then I'll just have to turn it over and piece the back:)

Best wishes and happy sewing in the new year!

One day (part two)

2011-12-31T09:19:00.000+01:00

While I was ironing and sorting I came across some abondoned wonky log cabin blocks and a couple of nine patches - I had thought of throwing them in the bin back when I made them, but luckily I threw them in here - as they gave me something to start with. I began to sew the blocks and random pieces into strips. A strip quilt, yes that's what I wanted. But I wished for more orphan blocks to liven things up a bit. I even tried my hand at making a wonky star but I wasn't in the mood for concentrating (and the half made star is in there too).

So I threw in my bag of crumbs - precious little quilting scraps too pretty to throw away). And that is when some funny things began to emerge. See that little critter in the yellow fabric on the right hand side of the above photo? And the red tulip below - that strip is barely half an inch wide.

I was beginnining to enjoy the crumbs - all those old favourites like those tiny pieces of green and blue circles. Even my ten year old remarked on those "I remember that fabric!".

There's that wonky star attempt on the right, but I much prefer the basket on the left which just made itself - I didn't realise that it looked like a basket until it was sewn into the block (the red 'handle' is a piece of heart fabric).

One day

2011-12-29T17:37:00.001+01:00

Every time I finish a quilt, or sewing project, I put away the scraps thinking 'one day I'll make that scrap quilt with thousands of little pieces', but that pile of special scraps grows too slowly. Meantime the 'odd scraps' the gifted, donated and 'don't throw that out, I'll take it' scraps grow beyond measure.

This little quilt did little to dint the 'use them up' scraps - the dressmaking cottons, the odd and the downright ugly fabrics. In fact, I loved that quilt so much that I've kept adding to those fabrics until I found myself stuffing them into an empty suitcase at the end of our summer holidays. That suitcase has been sitting there at the end of my bed, a constant reminder with every stubbed toe, that one day I have to get working on that quilt. I scoured the internet looking for just the right scrap quilt, but somehow my collection of fabrics from the last twenty odd years just didn't fit into the kind of turn of the century, 1930's scrap quilts that I love.

In the end I pulled out my iron, and a bottle of home made spray starch and started pressing. It took me two days to empty that case and starch those fabrics into shape. A few fabrics were put aside for quilt backs, or stored with my regular quilting fabrics because they were too fadey for this project, but the rest are going into the quilt and I have vowed not to stop until they are gone:)! Now that I have spent two days doing a loathsome job, there is no going back - those fabrics are going to be used up before they get crumpled again.

And so, I sat down with a pair of scissors and my sewing machine, and without too much thought I jumped in, just like the rabbit in this fabric.....

Stay tuned for the work in progress - blogging and sewing seems to be mutually exclusive in my house - but there is plenty of sewing going on.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T14:36:00.002+01:00

"She brought forth her son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. and laid him in a manger."

While the cat was away.....

2011-12-02T08:59:00.001+01:00

I have neglected this blog a little too long and was beginning to worry that I wouldn't have any readers left, so what a surprise when I discovered after months of absence that the number of followers had actually grown. Thanks for the vote of confidence:)

I did actually do some sewing over the summer, but sewing and blogging seem to be mutually exclusive at the moment. Now that school is back underway, I seem to have time for neither but stay tuned and I will show you what I have been working on.

The photo is from our summer holiday in England, looking anything but summery. But it was a lovely change from the hot sticky weather we had back home in Italy.

A sister quilt

2011-05-19T11:03:00.000+02:00

Miriam needs a new quilt of her own so I decided to make a sister quilt using the leftover fabrics to Nora's quilt.

I think they'll look quite nice together. The new one has some stronger reproduction fabrics in it and was inspired by this one. I changed the setting to a four patch in an economy patch as I like the way the setting triangles set off the four patch fabrics.

This is going together quite quickly as I am piecing it by hand during my daughters' dance and music lessons. I used to hate waiting around but now I look forward to the sewing time. Summer will be here soon and that's when I get some unbroken time to quilt (luckily it is a small quilt and won't be too hot to sit under).

A fresh start

2011-04-14T13:50:00.001+02:00

Years ago I had just one little box of special 'quilt shop' fabric. I decided to use them up in one special project and began cutting out diamonds for a split lone star like the first quilt in this this post. I calculated the fabric requirements, bought extra fabric, where I could, and then boxed it up and put it away. That project, kitted up, with diagrams and all, sat in the cupboard for years and years until I pulled it out last year to photograph. A few weeks ago I sat down and made a second section of the central star.

That's when I realised that there was something about the design and the colour placement that I didn't like anymore. Originally the colour placement was decided mostly by how much I had of each fabric not necessarily by best choice.

I started playing around with the fabrics again, adding in lots of new fabrics and after thinking about it for a long time, I ditched the original star design in favour of a sunburst pattern. (After seeing the quilt in the link, I made a note to self to do a little fussy cutting for the centre star.)

I sewed a test strip, choosing fabrics that make each other 'sing' when placed next to each other. Without making any real calculations, I used the fabrics I had less of toward the centre and fabrics I had more of toward the outer edge. Once I had something I liked, I sat down and calculated wether I had enough fabric to do what I wanted.

It took me a while to figure out the mathematics of it, but a knitting analogy helped - if you start out from the centre star with eight pieces, imagine one increase in each eight sections for each row. Basically, the star/circle, increases eight diamonds in each round.

I will have to buy in more yardage of some of the more recent fabrics, and the older fabrics but I had enough of many of the fabrics to use them where I wanted. I am actually looking forward to the fabric sostitutions and poverty patches that will occur where I don't have enough fabric (like this trip around the world ). I think that it will make the quilt more interesting.You can already see that there are three fabrics in the fourth row.

I don't want to think about how many diamonds I will have to cut to make this . I will just face them a few at a time.. I sew the diamonds into bunches of 10, for easy counting. I am not sure how to go about the quilt as it gets to the edges - the last round will have 152 pieces, and then I have to work out the corner sections. I will think about that when I get to it. It won't be for a long time yet:)

Back in the hoop

2011-03-21T10:53:00.001+01:00

The advantage of having many projects on the go is that as soon as you finish one you have something else you can pick up and continue on with (that's my justification anyway:) ).

The other day I finished the blocks from the last post and while I wait for some clear-thinking time to calculate sashing yardage, I pulled out this project which has been waiting patiently all winter. I still have a couple of months before it becomes too hot to quilt this woolen quilt.

I am making up the quilting patterns as I go, playing with styles and discovering what I like and don't like. I have discovered that I am not crazy about the quarter inch outline quilting and will replace it - perhaps with a single line down the centre of each diamond? I love the circles but couldn't for the life of me remember what I had used to mark them, so the above photo is also a pro-memoria. I only mark a small section at a time as I the pencil tends to fade or rub off and needs to be redone. I use a sharp HB or 2B pencil, depending on how dark I need the lines to be. I raided my girls' toy boxes for the marking tools. The cardboard templates were traced from applique patterns. I love how they look quilted. These patterned fabrics are difficult to quilt on and make me wish I had included more white muslin.

I have only just noticed how irregularly I marked the diagonal lines on the plaid fabric. Iwill leave it until later and decide if I can live with that. Probably not, but I want to move on a bit with the quilting before I do it over.

Time can give a different perspective to things, which I guess is the advantage of working slowly. Janet has found a solution to something that has been bothering her about this quilt that she has been working on for a long time. Her thoughts on batting are quite interesting.

Only just

2011-03-08T10:15:00.001+01:00

The last four blocks remaining for this quilt have been cut and stacked, ready to sew.

This is how much yellow fabric that was left at the end. Careful planning? No. I had so much yellow fabric to start with that I didn't bother to estimate how much I would need. I managed to make 15 blocks, and 15 blocks will be the quilt, but only just.

As boring as it is, I think I will sit down and plan things a little more carefully next time. Not so economically, I got into a bit of a panic and bought some more yellow fabric while in Australia. As it turned out, finding a good match was not as easy as I thought and I now have a as much yellow fabric in my stash as when I started out!

February is all but gone

2011-02-28T10:48:00.003+01:00

What I had planned to be a month long blogging break quickly turned into two. We're back from a busy holiday home in Australia visiting family and friends. A month has flown by while catching up with our regular life, unpacking souvenirs (the fabrics are washed and folded), and acclimatising to the cold weather. It will be a short winter for us this year. The daffodils are already in bloom here and other plants are wondering wether to send out their new shoots or wait another month until 'mad March' is over.

I haven't been posting, but I have been busy sewing. Will post about that as soon as I clear some space on the camera......

Thanks Kristine for reminding me that I have a blog!:)

PS. This is not my house:) The was taken in Captain Cook's cottage in the Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne.

Best wishes

2010-12-26T07:59:00.001+01:00

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year!

Thankyou to everyone who generously contributed photos to my advent of blogposts, and thankyou to everyone who followed along or commented. I am now going to take a little break until 2011. See you then...

(the photo is courtesy of my nine year old daughter Nora)

24th of December

2010-12-24T10:55:00.001+01:00

From the film "Io sono con te" or "Let it be"

23rd of December

2010-12-23T07:47:00.000+01:00

A different kind of Christmas compared to the previous post - the excitement of the beginning of summer, school holidays, new bikes and beach holidays.

22nd of December

2010-12-22T12:43:00.000+01:00

The thing I like most about a winter Christmas - the lights in the dark nights. When the weather starts to turn cold, and the days are shorter, I can't wait to get the Christmas decorations up at the beginning of December and we don't take them down again until the Epiphany on the 6th of January.

20th of December

2010-12-20T08:50:00.001+01:00

"Christmas is somehow a miracle: the miracle of the smiling faces of many exhausted people, the miracle of being helpful to many who are not in need but who have lost the deep meaning of the celebration."

Christmas lunch at Santa Maria in Trastevere church in Rome - a yearly event organised by the Sant'Egidio community for people in need. I have just discovered the gift list for the guests - this is going into my 'to do list' for next year.

18th of December

2010-12-18T10:21:00.000+01:00

I just loved the way this little wreath fits into the little niche in the door.

17th of December

2010-12-17T13:46:00.002+01:00

An early Christmas lunch in Kinglake. Most of you probably know of Kinglake because of the terrible fires in 2009. Many quilts were donated to the survivors - not only those who lost their homes and possesions, but also to those who lived through that terrible time and were equally affected by it.

The day before yesterday we travelled up to Kinglake to visit my aunt Margaret, a nun and pastoral worker who had been involved in the area prior to the fires, and was up at dawn, the morning after the fires hit, serving breakfast to those who made it out.

Margaret has continued working in Kinglake helping to hold a community together. When a house became available, one of the few that survived, she moved there. On Thursday we spent a wonderful day visiting her there and meeting some local folk. Thankfully, there has been plenty of rain this winter and early summer, and the forests of burnt trees are dressed in plenty of green.

16th of December

2010-12-16T09:54:00.001+01:00

I saw these origami wreaths on a few blogs last Christmas - it's a great way to use up all that seasonal junk mail. You can find a tutorial here. I did actually add a touch of glue stick to mine but you do have to work quickly before the glue dries.

14th of December

2010-12-14T07:47:00.000+01:00

A funny little fellow from my childhood.

11th of December

2010-12-11T11:18:00.000+01:00

Heavenly Stars crib quilt top. Yet to be quilted. I have an idea for quilted circles in the wavy pink background, and concentric rings in the pink striped background. I am looking to this book for inspiration.

10th of December

2010-12-10T09:53:00.000+01:00

9th of December

2010-12-09T06:34:00.001+01:00

The American Folk Art Museum, March 25-30, 2011. "Infinite Variety. Three centuries of red and white quilts."

More details here (and check out the full shot of the above quilt in the museum's collection).

Now if only Father Christmas would leave me an airline ticket....

8th of December

2010-12-08T06:40:00.001+01:00

A book is born.
It has been fun watching the progress of this book over at Tonya Ricucci's blog. I have never actually made a quilt with words in it but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy watching other people do it. Tonya has quite a group of followers and has inspired and made some very wonderful wonky quilts.
There is a funny and thoughtful review of the book here.
I might have to get myself a copy of this to put under the Christmas tree.

3rd of December

2010-12-03T10:57:00.000+01:00

Andrea Bocelli sings Jingle Bells with the Muppets. Very funny.

If you enjoy this then you might also like Andrea Bocelli's Lullabye To Elmo .

1st of December

2010-11-30T10:06:00.000+01:00

Heart wreath. My design. Began as a cushion cover and grew to a crib quilt - hence the sawtooth border.

I've challenged myself to create an Advent of Christmas related posts inspired by Pine Ridge Quilter's 25 days of Christmas. Mine will be bits and pieces of quilts, crafts and Christmas related things. Thanks in advance to everyone who has offered to help - I couldn't do 25 posts on my own!

I had to post this one early because tomorrow things will be a little bit up in the air - literally:)

Looking for the heart

2010-11-28T10:45:00.001+01:00

I was following a 'blog trail' starting from Wonkyworld to Black Threads a few weeks ago where I came across this book 'Stitchin' and pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt'. I was struck by these words;

"Look for the heart....when you find the heart your work will leap to life...."

I started piecing together fabrics randomly from my 'use-it-up' box (fittingly the heart fabric was chosen by a friend of my daughter, for a dress last summer, and the quilt is going to her soon-to-be-born sister).

I randomly machine pieced the fabrics together and once I had a block I placed it on an upterned crib quilt that I already had, for idea of size. I like to think that quilters would have once worked like this, back before rotary cutters, printed patterns and design boards.

Once I had four blocks, I cut strips of the sashing fabric with large dressmakers shears. This was all done by eye - I was surprised at how accurate you can be, with a decent pair of scissors. There was just enough sashing fabric - the top and bottom borders are pieced - with practically no fabric left over. This quilt just seemed meant to be. The whole quilt went together in about four days - if you have been following this blog then you know that is a real departure for me.

The back is pieced - I didn't have anything large enough - and these were scraps I wanted to use up. The top and back were done in a few hours. I was so enjoying seeing a quilt go together so quickly that I pin basted with safety pins, and quilted freehand lines without a hoop, using perlé 5 thread (no reason - it is just what I had).

I have never done a pieced binding before but I am really happy with how it turned out.

I thought it was fun to photograph these two quilts together. One neat and one free. Next I would like to do something in between.

Double wedding ring

2010-11-22T14:03:00.000+01:00

I bought these Double Wedding Ring pieces some months ago on e-bay. I am always attracted to unusual things that no-one else is bidding on - I feel justified purchasing something that may risk ending up as rat fodder in someone's garage, or worse. (Wonder what happened to that little segment missing in the upper corner of the photo?)

I sent a photo to Barbara Brackman after reading this post which mentions that the double wedding ring didn't appear until around 1920. The fabrics in these Wedding Ring pieces seemed earlier than that to me, and definitely different to the typical pastel fabrics of the 1930's when Double Wedding Rings had their heyday.

Today Barbara Brackman has published a new post specifically about the history of Double Wedding Ring quilts.

Keiko Goke's modern rendition of a Double Wedding Ring (featured in Barbara's post) has appeared all over the internet. I can see why - I adore the free pieced sections and wonky corner posts. Reminds me of the wonkiness of my own set of pieces above. Made me wonder if I could turn them into a wonky little wedding ring quilt - or should I just preserve them for posterity, as are?

More autumn colours

2010-11-19T13:43:00.001+01:00

A new cushion to brighten up the coming winter (from Tiny Happy) and a new quilt - the second of these quilts....

....mud fun....

....and a November sky.

Autumn colours

2010-11-04T10:45:00.001+01:00

I don't know if I will ever make a quilt in these colours, but my youngest - brown haired, brown eyed - daughter looks lovely in them.

The top was found in my local second-hand boutique (no thrift shop bargains in my neighbourhood). The fabric is Liberty. I traced off the pants pattern from a favourite pair of pants. The contrast trim on the inside of the waistband was a last-minute length adjustment. The button was a happy find from the button box.

I actually sewed these pants last winter, but as they turned out a little large, they weren't used much - just as well, because they fit my four-year-old perfectly now.

Never too late ....

2010-10-27T16:59:00.001+02:00

.....to change your mind.

I started this sampler quilt for my eldest daughter way back in 2003. My daughter was 1 and a 1/2 and we were on holiday in Australia. This was my first 'class quilt'.

The top went together quite quickly, but since I no longer had access to a quilt shop or classes, it hang around a long time waiting for backing fabric and quilting. Once I was ready to sandwich it, I decided to make the quilt a little longer. Enthusiastic about the 'get it done, not perfect' philosophy, I literally 'whacked on' a floral border top and bottom, then pieced together some strippy shirtings to lengthen the back. The top was sandwiched, basted and I began quilting. Summer came and the quilt went back in the cupboard.

When I pulled it out again this autumn, I suddenly noticed something. One of the blue and white fabrics in the back had a decidedly yellow tinge to it which stood out badly against the other blue and whites. How did I not notice that before? (I have since noticed that in bright light, the white reads whiter - in dimmer light the white reads cream). I thought about it a long time, deciding whether I could live with it, but seeing as that part of the quilt hadn't been quilted yet, I decided to replace both pieces of the toile.

The easiest thing would have been to applique a replacement strip over the top (this is what is recommended when repairing old quilts). But that fabric was one of my favourites - it seemed a pity to waste it.

I carefully unpicked the seam, folded the seam allowances under, slipped a new strip of fabric underneath, and applique stitched the surrounding fabric back in place. The quilting is going to be pretty dense, so I think it will hold. If not, I can always repair it - the quilt is staying at our house. This photo shows one the replacement pieces.

Now I am looking at those 'whacked on' border strips. I still have plenty of time before I quilt those - might come up with a pieced solution to substitute. This quilt has been such an odyssey as it is - no reason to finish it in a hurry now:)

October sky

2010-10-24T21:29:00.000+02:00

Stepping stones

2010-10-23T09:14:00.005+02:00

Give a quilter a box of broken pavers.......

A change in the weather

2010-10-15T14:06:00.002+02:00

Last night was the first really cold night of the autumn. Quilts come out around the end of September to decorate the house for my eldest daughters birthday, but we don't really need them until mid-October. I haven't finished any large bed quilts - the girls have their cot and crib quilts. This quilt is my four year old's favourite. She loves blue, like me.

This quilt came together really quickly. I had two very similar Italian shirtings (easy to come by in Italy as many men have their business shirts custom made - but they are still frightfully expensive), some scraps of white cotton and a pale blue ticking given to me by my mother. I found them sitting near each other in my fabric box and they just seemed so right together.

One of the blues has a fine black thread woven into it, and the other is a blue and white herringbone.

The backing is a lovely brushed cotton with a double blue pinstripe. It makes the quilt warm and soft. The batting is wool/polyester (probably Matilda's own), and the quilt is hand quilted with white thread.

This is the first time that I have done a Baptist fan pattern. I drew up a template with pencil and compass on some thin card, drew over the lines with a thick black marker, and then cut them out. Next time I would like to try larger fans, perhaps hand drawn.

I think I had this quilt somewhere in the back of my mind - it is one of my favourites and one I would love to make one day (Tree of Life - from Ljiljana Baird's book 'Quilts')

Perhaps because this quilt went together so quickly, I didn't notice until the top was finished that the corner stones run itno the outer border - not being able to think of any other solution, I left it as it was. I kind of like it.

This quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. It measures 32 1/2" by 40". I will add the dates once I figure them out.

Dresden plate blocks

2010-10-12T14:18:00.000+02:00

Machine pieced dresden plate blocks purchased on e-bay - I presume from the thirties or forties. None of them are the same size and some don't sit flat. I don't have any immediate plans to do anything with these but I love the colours and the odd combinations. I might just repiece the ones that don't lie flat and use them rest as are. I kind of like the craziness of them.

There are individual shots of the blocks in my flickr album.

1930's string pieced Lone Star

2010-10-02T22:14:00.000+02:00

This e-bay purchase was inspired by Ann of Ann Champion's blog and Martha of Q is for Quilter, and their collections of antique and vintage quilt tops. This quilt top was advertised as of being feedsacks, but the fabrics appear (to me) to be dress fabrics.

The quilt top was not in great condition. Somebody had, at one time, sandwiched the star (there are no setting squares or triangles) with a thick polyester batting and machine appliqued it onto a pale yellow sheet and, apparently, used it as a bedcover or throw.

Some of the stains are probably age ones from the fabrics used being from used clothes, and some of the stains are new - like blue wax candles. Some of the fabrics are very faded and worn while some are in almost new condition. I assume that the maker used a combination of old clothes, and new dressmaking scraps. I believe that quiters coud also buy scrap packs in that period. In all there are about twenty small damaged pieces.

First I gave the whole thing a gentle soak in warm water with mild dishwashing liquid (with a few colour catchers thrown in). When it was dry I took the star off it's backing. Luckily it was machine sewn with a large zig-zag.

Then I made a template from one of the diamonds and used it to check that the outer diamonds weren't too damaged or frayed. Using the template I realised that no two of the diamonds were exacly the same anyway (perhaps because the quilt has been used and washed - or were they never precise?). Despite that, the quilt does lie flat.

I have gently folded under the outer edges and loosely basted them down to protect the edges from fraying any further. As many of the fabrics are thin, I am going to applique the quilt back onto a new sheet instead of using a setting fabric. That way if they wear there will be another fabric underneath to hold the quilt together.

I plan to replace the badly stained fabrics and the very worn ones, but some of the damaged pieces have just one very small (moth?) hole. I am considering just repairing them. I can always stitch a replacement over them later. Does anyone think that is a good/bad idea? I think I can darn the tiny holes with matching thread.

The curious thing about this top is that it does not have a homogeneous collection of fabrics. Some of the sections have very bright fabrics and some sections use much quieter fabrics. The stitching appears to be all done (by hand) by the same person. Perhaps she started off using her favourite bright fabrics and ended up scraping the scrap barrel at the end? Two sections in particular are the most fadey, and strangely enough she didn't think of separating them with the brighter sections.

The nice thing about working on this top is enjoying all of the fabrics - there are so many to look at. They are so bold it makes me really curious to know what kind of clothes were in fashion at the time. Barbara Brackman has posted about housedresses from the 1930's here.

Ann Champion has a quilt top with the same design on her blog, and Bonnie from Quiltville and Tonya from Lazy Gal Quilting have both made modern versions of it (Tonya's top is actually posted on another blog - read the explanation here).

Goodbye to summer

2010-09-23T21:35:00.001+02:00

More sea beauty here

What are you working on?

2010-09-05T00:48:00.002+02:00

The other day, when I finished the quilt in my last post, my husband asked "So what else are you working on?".

Embarrassing question really.....I started listing my quilt projects, and didn't really know when to stop. I decided to pull everything out of the cupboard and make a little inventory. This is what I came up with......

Nora's sampler.

Pink and green - I actually don't know what this pattern is called.

Francesca and Benedetta's roman coins.

Nicky's nine patch.

Catie's corn and beans (I blogged about this one already).

Split lone star.

1930's lone star.

Feedsack four patches (a dolly quilt).

Just to prove to myself that I do finish things eventually:)

Leave a comment if there is a project here that you would like to know more about - that way I will know what to blog about next.

One down, one to go

2010-09-01T13:42:00.003+02:00

I started this pair of quilts back in 2004. At the time I was wanting to make something in pink and green and was looking for some new fabric for inspiration. I didn't have a computer and didn't know about on-line quilt shops so I asked my mother to go to my favourite quilting shop in Melbourne.

Mum surprised me with quite a large bundle of fabrics that she had chosen at 'Patchwork House' together with Olga (I am grateful to her for helping my mother put together such a nice selection).

I chose the hanging nine patch design inspired by this very chintzy early 1800's quilt from Ljiljana Baird's book 'Quilts'. I love the ninepatches with three rather than two fabrics. I enjoyed piecing the blocks so much that once I had made enough for one lap quilt, I kept going and made enough for two.

I bought the setting fabric on a very short trip to Australia in 2005. I was looking for a chintzy fabric but couldn't find anything I was really happy with and didn't have much time. At 'Patchwork on Central' someone suggested this blue. It really changed the look of the quilt but I am kind of happy with it. Once I got home to Italy, I realised that it would work well in the borders too - but the shop had sold out. After a flurry of phone calls and messages, 'Patchwork on Central' tracked down another bolt and posted me the border lengths.

I pieced the top together and the quilt was set aside as there was a new baby in the family.

Last year I basted both quilts and decided that it was time that they were quilted. But how?

I had decided on the chintzy look because I wanted to do something with simple quilting. But those plain blocks seemed to cry out for something fancier. I drew a design for a floral vine, but wasn't happy with it. I tried a large stipple (which is so popular and looks so good with machine quilting), I tried a simple flower. My quilt got messier and messier (with pencil markings and unpicked stitches) but I couldn't find anything I liked.

In the end I settled on diagonal double line quilting inspired by the ninepatch on the cover of this book. Normal quilting thread seemed too fine for this project - it seemed to get lost in with the fine white dots so I used Perlè 5 embroidery floss.

I love the way the stitches look against the backing fabric.

It was fun making these quilts because they really were a collaborative effort. All of the fabrics, except the back, were chosen by someone else.

One of these is a present for my Mum and will soon be going into my suitcase for our next trip to Melbourne, and one is going to my eight year old who likes to sleep under piles of covers. When she was three, she saw me making the ninepatches, and one night she commented on the one I had just made - "I don't like that one, I think you should unpick it tonight while I am asleep." Well I didn't - I hope it doesn't keep her awake :)

These quilts are hand pieced and hand quilted, with a 100% cotton batting (I think Hobb's Organic, but I am not completely sure). They finish up at 46" x 56". They were started in 2004 and one was finished in 2010 - hopefully the second one will be too!

A weekend in the country

2010-08-17T08:50:00.002+02:00

Picking plums for jam making.

Something for me

2010-08-11T07:53:00.001+02:00

I made this skirt and blouse for my birthday. The linen I bought locally and it is just right for hot weather.

The fabric for the skirt is Hope Valley - I bought it on-line. I had seen it on many blogs and chose it for the sprigs of blue flowers. I was a little bit disappointed by the colours when the fabric arrived - I didn't expect it to have a yellow tinge and the colours to be muted. Plus I didn't know what to wear with it.

Once I paired the skirt with this creamy white linen the colours came alive. The fabric took on a more translucent look. Now I love it.

The skirt is drafted from a dress pattern from a Burda magazine. The blouse is from the Japanes 'Tunic Tunic - 1 day sewing' book. I find it a little too 'blousy'. I would like to make the neckline higher and shorten the sleeves, to make it a little neater. Otherwise the fit is great.

Corn and beans

2010-08-09T14:09:00.004+02:00

This is an example of how I work and what I mean by ‘piecemeal’.

I started out with this corn and beans block and some pink and purple fabrics.

Originally I was going to use a white muslin for the background, but I thought it looked too stark – perhaps because many of the fabrics have white in them?

I had some pieces of yellow fabric in the cupboard that my mother-in-law had cut out with some project in mind and never finished. I thought they looked nice together. I added more fabrics in green and blue; many of them are 1930’s reproductions, many of them are modern, and some are old clothes.

I didn’t intend on making a 1930’s style quilt, but that seems to be the way it is going. Martha from q is for quilter, has done an ocean waves quilt top in similar colours.

The block design comes from this book - I like the simple black and white illustrations

Do you do wonky?

2010-08-05T11:24:00.003+02:00

This post was inspired by Deb Rowden's 'How do you work?'

This quilt came together one day when I was particularly frustrated about something. The girls were out of the house so I had no limits on space. I got out the sewing machine, dressmakers shears, and all my heavier scraps - upholstery fabric, denim, corduroy.

I must admit that it was therapeutic. I used a heavy fabric on the back and an old sheet sandwiched in the middle (it was ugly and I really wanted to get rid of it). I tried hand quilting this in baptist fans, but the fabric was thick and it was hard going. I started free machine quilting it until my machine gave up.

I will get around to finishing the quilting on this eventually. If I pin it carefully, I think I can quilt out some of the bumpiness.

I have some woven tape to bind it with (not sure how to attach it though - anyone know?).

I love reading about wonky quilts on other blogs and looking out for them on e-bay, but it's not something that comes naturally to me. Next time I think I will try something that combines wonkiness with precision like this string pieced lone star. I still get a kick out of my corners matching up.

This top (circa 1930) was hand pieced - that's more my style. It doesn't have a foundation fabric - would it have been hand pieced onto paper? I can't imagine so.

I don't know how to go about string piecing by hand. Any ideas anyone?

Currently quilting

2010-08-02T08:20:00.000+02:00

Auditioning buttons

2010-07-31T09:29:00.000+02:00

A little summer dress for my soon to be four year old.

Which buttons do you think I should go for....

Red?

Pale blue?

White?

An old favourite

2010-07-29T10:20:00.000+02:00

This quilt is not technically my first - but one of the firsts.

I started quilting around about 1995, armed with some strip piecing technique books and a rotary cutter. I bought 'quiltish' looking fabrics (lots of black) at a local dress fabric store and quickly whipped up a mammoth 2.5m square quilt top. I tried to machine quilt it (with a thick polyester batting), abandoned that idea, and then tried to teach myself to hand quilt it (I actually unbasted the quilt and split the batting to make it thinner). That quilt is still basted in the top of the cupboard.

After that I made a cot quilt for a friend expecting her first baby (in 1996). That quilt was made with dressmaking scraps and was hand quilted without a hoop, using a thin polyester batting and buttonhole thread. I don't have a photo of that one.

A couple of years later (around 1999) I discovered quilting shops - not here in Italy, but on a trip home to Melbourne. I signed up for a hand quilting class and quickly stitched together a cushion cover with some Liberty fabrics and muslin. I drew up my own quilting pattern and traced it onto the muslin with pencil (by taping fabric and pattern onto a window).

I will never forget watching my teacher make those first quilting stitches in that muslin, and seeing those stitches make little ripples in the fabric. It was love at first sight. I learnt to stab stitch with a quilting hoop, and I loved stitching that pattern so much that I was sad to see it finished. I never finished the cushion cover but I had enough Liberty fabric left to make this little crib quilt. I bought more muslin and machine stitched this top together. The next year I went back to another quilting class and found the feather cable in a quilting book. I had to adapt the cable to make it fit into the border.

This quilt was started well before I became pregnant with my first child - and wasn't finished until she was going on three (2004)! I remember putting the last stitches in the border, one summer holiday, while my daughter and her father were on an outing together. I enjoyed stitching it so much that I really savoured those last stitches.

I only had just enough fabric left for the binding - that would have had to wait for yet another trip to Australia for a binding lesson. I might have to review my dates for when I finished this!

It is a really peaceful quilt. It usually hangs on the side of our cot, and I can see it from my computer desk. My second daughter doesn't love it so much, because of the birds. I loved watching my daughters sit in their cot, studying the quilt and noticing the patterns quilted into it. My elder daughter (9) still sleeps under this as an extra layer of warmth on cold nights. I have two quilts, in the quilting stage for her - she really needs something bigger!

The quilt measures 29"x 30". It uses a pre-washed wool/polyester batting (probably Matilda's Own). I would have bought about 25cm (approx. 1/4 yard) of each Liberty fabric, which makes this a very economical quilt.

This time last year

2010-07-28T15:29:00.000+02:00

This time last year I was trying to think of something to give my youngest daughter for her third birthday. She didn't seem to need anything, so something handmade seemed to be in order. I already had some basted hexagons and a couple of hexagon flowers with this quilt in mind ....

...from this book;

I used an old business shirt of my husband's for the background, scraps from my stash for the flowers, and two more business shirts arrived in time for the backing and binding.

The quilt measures 13 1/2"x 15". The hexagons are 2" across (straight side to straight side). It is hand pieced using English paper piecing, and hand quilted.

August in Italy is not a great month for sewing - luckily this was small. All the same, it is not my best stitching as my eyes got rather foggy. I am not sure how interested my little one was in the quilt - she seemed more interested in unwrapping her presents than what was inside. In any case, it looks lovely in the girls bedroom and I enjoy it every time I walk past.

Economy patch doll quilt

2010-07-28T09:09:00.000+02:00

I started out making these economy patches from my scrap bag with visions of a bed size quilt for my bed. I soon got tired of them though, probably because I didn’t have a very wide variety of scraps.

This quilt finishes up at 16 1/2" x 20". It is hand pieced and hand quilted. It was finished in 2007 or 2008.

The back is a pale blue with tiny white dot.

I’m not sure that I am happy with the quilting design on this. Perhaps diagonal crosshatching would have been better?

2010-07-27T15:47:00.000+02:00

Over the last couple of years I have discovered a whole community of on-line quilters who have inspired me, helped me, and replied to my comments and queries despite us having never met. I have created this blog to join in this active quilting community and to perhaps give something back.